Working...

HTML, FTP, Gimp, Jing, Irfanview, GoPro, MP4, Open Office, macro, micro...You name it, we used it. Today was a techno smorgasbord palooza here at Old Sawmill Station.

We spent a leisure morning drinking fresh ground coffee while writing op our lengthy blog post about Days 1 and 2 of our Road Trip. We had agreed to meet with The Hurless Family “about 10-ish”. As the apppointed time drew near, I began to wonder, “Gee, do I still have these skills? Are they really still lodged somewhere in my synapses?”

Well, everyone gathered pretty much right on time for our 10-ish meeting and we six sat together at a table looking ready to solve the world's problems in one fell swoop. I know how to run meetings so I set everyone at ease and lightened up the mood and then The Hurless Family relaxed and settled once again into the laid back mode for which they are duly famous.

After about 30-40 minutes of free flow “gabbing” we pretty much knew our “marching orders” for doing a makeover on the website. I told them to realize that all they would see of me throughout the day was a geezer sitting in a corner staring at a computer. I told them not to worry. It was normal behavior for anyone messing with amending the guts of a website.

Sure enough, I sat in the same place in pretty much the same “thinker” pose for more than 5 hours...punctuated, of course, by inhaling a famous Old Sawmill Station hamburger. By the time lunch rolled around I was on an HTML roll and the last thing on my mind was taking leisurely bites out of that burger. Nope, by that time of day all I could think of was WORK!

All those skills and programs necessary to do website work came flooding back to my fore brain and fingertips and files were flying back and forth between Old Sawmill's WIFI node and CTCI's (AKA: CusterTel's) web hosting server(s).

It's SO much more fun and efficient to work on somebody's website face-to-face. It's SO tedious and frusrating to try to do such work by email or Facebook message.

With each change, update or edit of the website, I could simply walk into their office and ask, “Is THIS what you want?”

By the end of the day, we had reached a clean “break point”. I could walk away from the project knowing all the loose ends were tidied up and that the clients were duly pleased. I know I impressed them today and I have to tell you I impressed myself, too. I am danged glad to know I still “got this stuff”. Up here not far from the middle of nowhere, you don't really need a Silicon Valley, high tech web site with a million goofy bells and whistles and special effects. Nope, you need a Good Old Fashioned website that tells a compelling story and resonates with potential customers.

That's what at is ALL about here on The Salmon River Deep in The Heart of Custer County. Lisa Hurless shared an amazing story with us. Even though the website was more than 2 years old before today, it FILLED their sprawling RV park with eclipse visitors. Lisa said she was absolutely certain than 90% of their eclipse visitors came to Old Sawmill because of the website!!!!

And bear in mind the website those eclipse visitors were viewing was last amended in early May 2015!
So, that just goes to show ya that ya don't need the latest and greatest website to make money. Nope, on The Salmon River you primarily just need a functional website that's moderately up-to-date---and moderately up-to-date can be loosely contrued.

Anyway, we proceeded merrily along today and more or less lost track of time. That often happens up here on The Salmon River. The river moves according to its own rythmn and flow. Time more or less transpires in tandem with The Water. It's hard to explain. Time takes on its own Spirit here. Ah, The Spirit of Time!

We have yet much to do regarding their website and yet another really long day looms ahead. We fully expect to sit nearly motionless for many, many hours on Thursday, pondering all of the seemingly imponderable permutations of how to please clients while yet creating something that looks good on a cell phone. Talk about Rubik's Cube!

Our plans have indeed changed once again. What else is new, eh? We need to be here Sunday at Old Sawmill Station for an obligatory Special Event to Honor The Late Great Clayton Hurless. We thought we would be playing pickleball in Hailey Sunday. Nope. Anyway, we don't know how the pickleball fairy dust is going to shake out but we're good to go with whatever at is.

We also thought we would be returning to Idaho Falls on Monday or Tuesday. Now it's looking like Tuesday or Wednesday.

And so at goes during Life On The Road.

The Roadie Life!